How to Use the Personal Digital Signature
There are three major steps to using a personal digital signature to sign your Outlook VBA projects:
1. Install Digital Signature for VBA Projects.
2. Create the digital certificate.
3. Sign the project by using the digital certificate.
The following sections describe these steps in detail.
Install Digital Signature for VBA Projects
By default, Digital Signature for VBA Projects is not installed with Office 2000, so you must install it yourself.
1. Close all programs.
2. Click the Windows Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
3. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
4. Do one of the following:
* If you installed Outlook by using the Office Setup program, click Microsoft Office on the Install/Uninstall tab, and then click Add/Remove.
* If you installed Outlook individually, click Microsoft Outlook on the Install/Uninstall tab, and then click Add/Remove.
5. Click Add or Remove Features.
6. Click the plus symbol (+) next to Office Tools.
7. Click the icon next to Digital Signature for VBA Projects, and then click Run from My Computer.
8. Click Update Now.
Create the Digital Certificate
Installing Digital Signature for VBA Projects does not create the digital signature itself; rather, it installs an application program that you run to create the digital signature.
1. In Windows Explorer, locate and double-click Selfcert.exe. It is located in the Office program folder; by default, the path of this folder is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office.
2. In the Your name text box, type your name or some other identifying information, and then click OK.
Sign the Project
Once you have created the digital certificate, you can use it to sign your Outlook VBA project.
1. In the Visual Basic Editor, select the project you want to sign.
2. On the Tools menu, click Digital Signature.
3. Click Choose, and then select the digital certificate you created.
Note The first time you start Outlook after signing your project, Outlook will display a message informing you that the Outlook project (called ThisOutlookSession) contains macros written by you. To prevent this message from appearing again, select the Always trust macros from this source check box.
More About Digital Signatures
Because a personal digital signature that you create yourself isn’t issued by a formal certification authority, VBA projects that are signed by using such a certificate are referred to as self-signed projects. Depending on how your organization uses the digital-signature features in Microsoft Office, you might be prevented from using such a certificate, and other users might not be able to run self-signed macros for security reasons.
Some organizations use tools such as Microsoft Certificate Server to produce or distribute digital certificates within the organization. If this applies to your organization, you might be able to sign your VBA projects by using a digital certificate from your organization’s internal certification authority. Even if your organization does not issue digital certificates for internal use, a network administrator or software development manager in your organization might control a digital signature that can be used to sign your project for you.
You can also obtain a digital certificate from a commercial certification authority, such as VeriSign or Thawte Consulting. The digital certificates provided by these authorities provide the level of assurance required by commercial software publishers such as Microsoft.
* For more information about digital signatures, you can visit these sites:
o Microsoft Security Advisor (
www.microsoft.com/security [
http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.aspx ] )
o VeriSign, Inc. (
www.verisign.com [
http://www.verisign.com/default.aspx ] )
o RSA Data Security (
http://www.rsasecurity.com/ [
http://www.rsasecurity.com/default.aspx ] )
* You can also read about digital security and Microsoft Office in the Microsoft Office 2000/Visual Basic Programmer’s Guide [
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...mmersguide.asp ] published by Microsoft Press (1999).
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